gaigalas

Don't worry about being precise, this is an informal speculation thread with low stakes. I don't expect anyone (especially me) to nail it.

Thanks for the insights!

I appreciate the heads up.

This is a low stakes brainstorming conversation, I presented my ideas as hypotheticals and shared my sources.

Honestly, I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would share any better insight on what the recently work on the SR-71 frame would be used for in practice. That hasn't happened so far, but that's fine.

"Your guess is bad because using the SR-71 for _____ in missions such as ______ would make more sense" would be stellar brainstorming about this beloved fan favorite.

Makes sense. You seem to know a lot of stuff! What do you believe the SR-71 frame is going to be used for?

It seems no one else offered any other concrete uses that would justify the efforts that went public regarding the frame reuse.

That likely concentrated the discussions towards this single idea I presented. However, I'm not actually that committed to it. If you have any other, I would very much would like to hear about it.

The conversation goes as follows:

- Reusable/non-reusable

- Cost/range

The machine gun and laser are illustrative examples. I offered a cheaper short range missile as an option too, if those two bother you.

At some point, I believed you got carried away by specific details about aerodynamics and laser payload (you are probably right!), but are ultimately irrelevant for the progression of the conversation: if you are closer, you can use a cheaper weapon.

It's normal to get carried away (I do it all the time), and I'm fine with having my comments broken down and dissected. However, there are aspects of what I said that weren't answered, so they still stand.

Sorry, I should have explained it: you want to intercept a spy balloon before it enters your airspace, not after it has already entered and possibly gathered any information.

I don't know which weapon would be used. A laser or a machine gun can take out a balloon if you're close enough. Even if missiles are used, closer range air-to-air are cheaper.

Also, approaching the balloon in stealth with a plane that has its own radar system is considerably less paraphernalia than ships chasing balloons.

I could be wrong about how the SR-71 will be used, but I'm very sure using expensive missiles designed for much more advanced threats to take out balloons is insanity.

We went from "it will be too cheap to meter" to "we need to meter this thing hard". Amazing.

Perhaps the issue is not money, but production capacity? Those take some time to build, and you don't want to deplete your stockpile on spy balloons.

F-15s are not stealth. You don't want to risk escalation by sending fighter jets towards someone else's airspace. To me, they don't make sense for this kind of mission.

It does sound like a lot of work, but that's the part of the puzzle that is not a mystery. Someone is in fact putting one of those back to work, we just don't know why.

Well, it's not reusable. You're wasting a resource destined for hypersonic deterrence on some sheets of mylar that float around.

I mean, you can do that, but it would be a tremendous embarrassment.

Fair correction on the altitude (still in the lower bounds of the balloons, as I mentioned).

The SR-71 already flew in the configuration I mentioned. It's the YF-12C (a converted SR-71).

Recovering and converting another sure is more expensive than one missile, but it's a reusable platform.

A ground missile able to reach those balloons is more expensive than a modernized SR-71 sortie. High-altitude, precision missiles are also not allocated for this task. China can launch dozens of balloons for cheap, and spending one multi-million-dollar missile on each is insanity. Even the long range air-to-air ones are too expensive for that.

The SR-71 (as a new YF-12D interceptor) makes more sense. It can take multiple balloons in one flight with cheap shorter range air-to-air missiles (or maybe even cheaper weapons, for a balloon a laser would do), then go home and do that over and over again.

What are you talking about? The YF-12C was a converted SR-71. It flew exactly as I'm describing. All of this has already been done before.

You might be confusing the YF-12 with the A-12, which is related but a significantly different airframe.

I won't engage in discussing whether balloons are high priority or not. Let the 2023 events and the funding towards those areas speak for themselves.